Odd Fellows Monument

Saturday
We got rather a late start this morning, both of us having experienced a bad night. The temperatures were cool, but it developed into a beautiful sunny day. Originally we had been thinking of going for a swim at the fitness centre, but then R remembered we had seen a sign on the door when we were there earlier in the week, saying they would be closed for some work today. So instead we went walking in the sunshine at Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum. After our rather muddy walk through the woods yesterday, I fancied somewhere paved, and it’s a good place to see Spring blossoms. I shall include an extra of some of the blossom, but for my main blip I decided to focus on this striking monument, which we hadn’t seen before. Today, instead of following one of the marked routes like I usually do, we took some of the other roads, and came across this interesting monument, the Odd Fellows monument. I was intrigued at the time that there was no name on it, so when we returned home, I had to look it up. It was founded by the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF), a men’s benevolent organisation. Evolving out of the Order of Odd Fellows which began in England during the 18th century, the IOOF was founded in the US in 1819 by Thomas Wildey in Baltimore, Maryland. The IOOF was originally chartered by the Independent Order of Oddfellows Manchester Unity in England but has operated as an independent organization since 1842, although it maintains an inter-fraternal relationship with the English Order. The core command of the organisation was to “visit the sick, relieve the distressed, bury the dead, and educate the orphan”. The three female figures at the bottom allude to their motto "Friendship, Love and Truth". The figure at the top represents Moses. Similar in some ways to Freemasons, the Odd Fellows emphasize service and charity, while Freemasons focus on self-improvement and the pursuit of knowledge.
This evening we were out at the Playhouse again, to see the new production opening this evening in the main theatre, The Book Club - an entertaining comedy about the popularity of Book Clubs. It made for a really fun evening out.